


Watermelon Doors and Mascara Waffles

by Emirael



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: ADHD Anna, Commission fic, Gen, Platonic Relationship, Sisters, sensitive portrayal of ADHD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 06:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2763647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emirael/pseuds/Emirael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being diagnosed with ADHD, Anna struggles both with problems she did and didn't have before her diagnosis. Thankfully, Elsa is there to help her out.</p><p>Commissioned by anonymous</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watermelon Doors and Mascara Waffles

**Author's Note:**

> TW for mentions of people being ableist assholes.
> 
> I do not have ADHD, but I have done my best to write a sensitive portrayal based on both research and others' personal experiences.

 

_Tap-tap-ta-tap-tap._

“Elsa?” Anna leaned her cheek against her sister’s doorframe. They’d painted it together when they were children. “May I come in?”

“Of course!” came the reply from the other side.

Anna opened and couldn’t help but smile as her older sister glanced at her over her shoulder. “I didn’t know when you’d get back.”

“Just now,” Anna said, watching Elsa set aside her homework to give her full attention. “It was... shorter than would have assumed.” The sight of Elsa’s homework triggered a stab of resentment. Anna knew that Elsa would have been steadily working, without distraction, since she’d gotten home from school.

“In any case,” Anna added, “It’s official now.”

“Yeah?” Elsa smiled encouragingly. “What’s the verdict?”

“Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD.” Anna walked over and flopped backward on Elsa’s blue bedspread. “It took six months of observations and a half dozen doctor’s appointments to tell me something I knew all along.” She sighed and didn’t bother to keep back the bitterness. “I’m too broken to function.”

“You are absolutely not.” She heard Elsa get up out of her chair a couple seconds before she saw her sister sit on the edge of her bed. “You’re wonderful and brilliant and maybe this explains a few things, but everyone is different.”

Anna felt her eye twitch. She sat up. “Yeah? Well it’s easy for someone perfect to say that.” Elsa got everything right. Everything. “Everyone is different but your different isn’t broken.”

“I’m not perfect, Anna.” Elsa glanced away. “I can understand why you might be frustrated, why you might feel that way. I... don’t have the same struggles you do. I’m going to do some reading and try to understand, but, right now, would it help if you could talk to someone who shared your experiences a little more?” She shrugged and raised her hands in a helpless gesture. “I’m here for you, but I also know that your ‘perfect’ older sister might not be who you need right now.”

“Maybe?” Anna sighed, feeling the heat behind her frustration fade. She wasn’t mad at Elsa. Elsa couldn’t help being who she was. “I’ve been talking about stuff in appointments, but it’s been so stupid, having people listen and knowing they’re just trying to figure out what’s wrong with me.”

“That sounds terrible.” Elsa had wrinkled her nose. Anna laughed a bit at the expression.

“It was terrible. And maybe I want to talk about it, but I don’t think anybody could really understand where I’m coming from?” Of course, Elsa was trying. Anna shot her a smile to show that she appreciated the effort. “It’s complicated because... I’m wrong inside my own head.”

At her sister’s patient, encouraging expression, Anna forged onward. “I’m wrong before the teacher even calls on me, before I lose track of class discussion, before I zone out on a timed math quiz. I’m already wrong just because of how I think.” She ran a hand through her hair. “It’s just how my brain works, and I used to think that everyone thought like this, that I was just bad at thinking.”

Anna felt an abrupt prick at the corners of her eyes. “I eventually figured out that I was different, but this diagnosis is just confirmation that I’m the butt of ‘oh look, a squirrel’ jokes, confirmation of just how broken I am.”

Elsa leaned forward, her mouth taut, and Anna shook her head to keep her sister from interrupting. “Not now,” she said. “I’m so broken that in this moment, right this second, I want to tell you about clocks, about how they’re obnoxious with how they tick and timed tests are terrible and bitchy like that fucking Hans guy at school, with his stupid, uneven sideburns, which remind me of lies because they look kinda grody, like he thickens them with fucking mascara or something, and YES!” She took a deep breath. “Yes it’s funny. It’s hilarious and sometimes I laugh for no discernable reason because my mind just did this kinda thing.

“But I’m so, so frustrated.” Anna hugged her knees close to her chest. “Because I cannot even tell you how much this sucks without getting sidetracked about mascara sideburns.”

A series of conflicting expressions crossed Elsa’s face, as though she wasn’t certain whether to laugh or frown. “That sounds... difficult,” she managed eventually.

Anna let a smile through. “I know it’s funny. It’s okay to laugh.”

Elsa looked away. “But I’m trying to be empathetic.”

“Okay,” Anna said, “then laugh with me: Mascara Sideburns.” She giggled and was pleased when her sister laughed along. For a moment, the dire quality the diagnosis had cast over Anna’s life subsided. It was a label, but... it wouldn’t cause any more struggle than she’d already been facing. And she could still laugh with her sister.

“But seriously.” Elsa tilted her head. Her laughter stilled.

“Seriously...?” Anna tilted her head the other way.

Elsa moved closer and pulled Anna into a tight hug. “That seriously sucks,” she whispered. “I had no idea.”

Anna leaned into the hug and sighed. “Yeah.... but... It’s kinda nice to have some sort of confirmation? If there’s a name for this, that means that I’m not entirely alone with my broken—”

Elsa cleared her throat and pushed Anna’s shoulders back to look her in the eyes. “Not broken,” she said.

Despite herself, Anna smiled. “I’m not entirely alone with my...non neuroatypical thought processes. There’s probably plenty of other people who think like me who go through the same thing.”

“Absolutely,” Elsa said, nodding. “In fact, I think I know a girl you could talk to from our school. She’s a Sophomore.”

Anna’s smile broadened into a grin. “Oh? She has ADHD?” Someone from their school could mean someone Anna could talk to at school, about school.

Elsa shook her head and pulled back from Anna. “No, but I think you two could have a lot to bond over. She’s dyslexic and gets a lot of crap at school.”

“That sounds like a bad lot to have. Allow me to assure you, Elsa, our teachers are not the best at providing accommodations for anyone struggling.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Elsa said. “And I’ll send you her IM handle so you two can talk.”

“I really really appreciate it, Elsa,” she replied. Anna’s chest seemed to expand with happiness and it took a moment for her to place why. She was happy to hear that there was someone she could talk to, but, more than that, Elsa had just... taken Anna’s word for it, that school wasn’t the same bastion of wonder and success that it was for her.

“I love you so much,” Anna added. “And I love talking to you, but I think I’m gonna go and talk to this Sophomore chick and do some bonding over living in a world that doesn’t understand mascara sideburns.”

Elsa covered her mouth with her fingertips and held back a giggle. “Well, know that I’m here regardless, whenever you need me.”

Anna popped up off the bed. “Duh,” she said. “You’re my sister. It’s in the job description.”

“I’ll even provide snacks, if that’ll help stave off the hopelessness of fighting against a neurotypical world.” Elsa rolled her eyes, but her smile was genuine.

“Oooh, that’s above and beyond.” Anna winked as she turned to walk out of the room. “I’ll be sure to mention that on your monthly evaluations.”

“Gee. Thanks,” Elsa called as Anna shut the door.

She paused for a moment outside Elsa’s door, then smiled. Elsa was perfect and it was so aggravating sometimes, starting school with teachers and other students making assumptions because she was ‘Elsa’s sister’ before she got to be Anna. But... sometimes Elsa was the perfect sister and that was wonderful too.

Anna’s leg bounced as she waited for her laptop to boot up and considered how strange it was that now she knew why her leg did so.

And that was okay.

As soon as she had the message window pulled up, Anna started typing out a haphazard introductory message to [trueatlantean01].

_Hi there, I’m Anna Arendelle from DHS. I’m a freshman and I don’t think we’ve met, but you know my sister, Elsa. Um, Elsa mentioned that you have dyslexia and I guess I just wanted to talk to you a bit because I got diagnosed with ADHD today and I’ve been having a lot of stupid school problems. I figure you’ve probably gone through plenty of nonsense and, uh, I dunno. Wanna have a bitch session/pass on advice to this poor padawan? I’m feeling kinda lost._

Before it occurred to Anna to proofread or revise or even think twice about her message, she’d pressed the enter key. She shrugged off the lost opportunity. If this chick wasn’t interested, then that was that.

You know, except Anna would be alone at a school which didn’t seem to care too much about kids who didn’t fit the standard. She wouldn’t have someone to talk to who might have some advice or warnings?

She fidgeted for a minute, waiting for a reply, and this time she hated that she knew why she was fidgeting, just a little.

Brrreep.

Anna gave herself whiplash, turning back to the computer screen to see the reply she’d received.

_Hay Anna, my name is Kida. I think I’ve seen you around. somone pointed you out the other day as Elasa’s younger sisster. that’s gatta be a rought label. I’m deffanitly down for a bitch sesshion as lonf as you dont bitch about my spelling. It also takes me a little extra time to read. How’s Adhd treating you?_

Anna smiled. “Elsa’s younger sister” was a tough label at school, but she wouldn’t trade her place for anything. Even if Elsa wasn’t always the right person for every moment, she always knew how to get Anna what or who she needed.

_HAhahaha do you have time for a list?_

  
  


*

  
  


Anna knew Elsa would show up at her door eventually. She also knew that Elsa was probably going to come in whether or not Anna answered the door. She couldn’t expect her older sister to ignore the fact that she’d skipped dinner, so Anna indulged herself and kept her music turned up, not particularly caring if it was loud enough to probably cause hearing loss or whatever.

Her stomach growled, and, after a few minutes of her thoughts skipping back and forth, trying to ignore it, she grumbled and got up, going to her closet to pull out a stashed box of cheese crackers.

_Tap-tap-ta-tap-tap_

So, naturally, Elsa knocked while she was up and away from her computer and, therefore her headphones.

Anna sighed. She was already standing up, and her original plan to hang out until Elsa finally just opened the door and burst in, a la classic older sister, no longer seemed quite as fun. She trudged over and opened the door a crack.

“What?” She squinted at her sister.

Elsa’s arms were crossed. “So. What’s up.” She wrinkled her nose. “You skipped dinner and you seriously never skip meals. What the hell happened between you leaving school and me getting home?”

Anna rolled her eyes and opened the door wider so Elsa could come inside, then ate a few crackers. She noticed Elsa’s eyes cast about the room, taking in her usual state of mess. Thankfully, Elsa had stopped commenting on it ages ago, even before the ADHD reveal.

Slumping in her desk chair, Anna waited until Elsa was perched on the edge of her bed before speaking. “Just parents. Being stupid.”

“Our parents do that sometimes, what did they do? Say?” A head tilt. Elsa’s go-to gesture.

“Just a bunch of bullshit about how I ought to be able to ‘try harder’ now that we know about the ADHD.” Anna answered. She didn’t shy away from making air quotes when it seemed appropriate. “They seem to think that now that we know the ‘root of the problem,’ I should be capable of trying in the right ways, like I’m driving or whatever and previously was unable to see right-hand turns or something.” She stuck her hand in the cracker box and pulled out a handful to start munching on.

Elsa frowned. “That’s really obnoxious. shouldn’t they know better from research by now?”

Anna shrugged. “I’m not sure they’ve read much beyond the packet the doctor gave them. Not everyone is as fond of the ‘r’ word as you, Els.” She stuck her tongue out at her sister. “I guess... I’m more upset that they think I haven’t been trying ‘harder’ or ‘better’ since finding out. I’ve been applying myself differently and using every study trick I can figure out.” She bit her lip. “But... they just keep talking about meds. Like that’s a panacea.”

“Panacea... nice word.” Elsa grinned.

“Thanks!” Anna smiled back.

“But seriously.”

“Seriously.” Anna popped another handful of crackers into her mouth.

Elsa’s eyebrows drew together. “Why are they so intent on medication? And, um, if you don’t mind me asking, what are your objections? I just want to understand.”

Anna huffed. “They just want me to go on meds because that’ll ‘normalize’ things and calm me down. And... there’s nothing bad about that, inherently. But when I bring up reasons I don’t want meds, or reasons I’m the least bit hesitent, they act as though my priorities are bad.

“‘Cause meds have side effects. I’ve been talking to Kida and some other people at school. The normal ADHD meds? Almost all of them are appetite suppressants, but not some kinda fun diet kind or whatever. They literally make you nauseated at the thought of eating, at the smell of food.” Anna threw a hand in the air and shook the box of crackers in Elsa’s direction. “I would really like to avoid that, ya know? And the meds cause chest pains sometimes? I talked to this one kid at school that Kida knew. He used to get panic attacks on the clock, an hour after taking Stratera.”

Anna ate another couple of crackers and stared out the window for a moment before looking back at Elsa. Her sister looked aghast. The crackers were delicious.

“That’s... terrible?” Elsa grimaced.

“Seriously.” Anna scowled. “But, apparently, I shouldn’t consider that when I could concentrate like neurotypical kids.”

“Well, if they bring it up again, I’ll argue for your side,” Elsa said. “You don’t have to take any medication you don’t want to.”

“I at least wanna give this a shot. I think I’m already doing better than before, just by being aware.” She looked away. “But sometimes it’s just terrible. Other kids ask if you ‘got all the smart genes,’ and if I bother to explain, they joke that now I’m their adderall hookup.”

The room’s atmosphere shifted. Anna glanced down from the ceiling to find that Elsa looked positively frigid. “Who says this? What are their names?” Her voice was quiet, but piercing.

Anna raised her hands in a placating gesture. “Woah, no need to go all ice queen on them,” she objected.

“I just want to know who thinks they can talk to you that way.”

“Yeah?” Anna smiled gently. “And I’d love to see you glare them into submission. But if you step in, then I’m just the freshman who went running to her big sister to take care of bullies. And you graduate next year.”

Elsa huffed. “Fine. But you’re sure?”

Anna nodded. “I’ve got my own strategy. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll try,” Elsa said dryly.

“And hey, if I drop out, I have a ready-made drug dealer clientele.” Elsa’s expression contorted, but Anna just laughed and kept going before she could object. “Hey hey, you know I’m joking.” She smiled wryly. “It’s just... our parents sound like my teachers sometimes. They seem to think that if I ‘try harder’ and do so for some prescribed period of time, that I’ll turn into you, like some sort of ticking lipstick timebomb that will eventually bleach my hair your shade of blonde.”

“Lipstick?” Elsa raised an eyebrow.

“Well yeah,” Anna said. “Mascara is lies, but lipstick is farther down, like how a timebomb counts down and I also want to explode when people open their mouths to say that. So it makes sense. Also, you wear lipstick. And they want me to turn into you.”

“That’s... fantastically shitty,” Elsa said, standing up. She crossed the room and pulled Anna up out of her chair into a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

Anna let them hug for a moment before she started to squirm. “Okay enough hugging, Elsa. I feel like an angry cat and while I appreciate it, I’m still kinda pissed about everything.”

Elsa gave her one last squeeze. Anna mock-flailed to get her off until her sister laughed and finally pulled back.

“Do you have some homework to work on while we talk?” Elsa asked, sitting back down. “I’ve been doing some reading to try and understand, but the examples are extreme and really specific.” She shrugged. “The gist I got is that you’re able to carry on a conversation while doing something else, or that it might help you to have more than one thing going on. But that seemed to contradict with how getting distracted works against you.”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “That’s kind of a weird way to explain it. Uh. Maybe I can clarify,” she said, “Have you ever, like, walked through a door and forgotten what you were supposed to be doing?”

Elsa nodded. “Apparently there’s something about doors that, unless we’re focused on what we need, they can make us forget what we needed.”

It was a little bit melodramatic on purpose, but Anna narrowed her eyes and gazed at Elsa in the most intense fashion she could muster. “That’s what it’s like,” she whispered, “All. The. Time.” Before Elsa could reply, she threw her arms up in the air. “All the doors! Everywhere like in that one painting with the stairs that go upside-down!”

“Escher?” Elsa offered.

“Yeah!” Anna shouted. She remembered that Elsa had asked about homework and started pulling out her math book. “It’s like an Escher thing except when you look through mirrors pointed at each other, they just get greener with each layer, like you’re going into a forest, except for me it’s like an endless barrage of doors and by the time I’m, mentally, at door 394, I can’t remember what happened at door seven.” She sighed, flipping to the page with her math homework for the night. “Except door seven is my the essay question. Which is timed. And has sideburns. It’s like that scene from _Labyrinth_. But with less crotch bulge.”

Anna got out a sheet of paper and pencil and set them in her math book, then turned to look at Elsa. Her sister looked focused, but a bit lost. Anna glanced away, blushing slightly. She’d probably left Elsa behind at door 11 or something. She usually tried to keep her conversations from jumping around too much, but in explaining the conversations jumping, well, they jumped.

Elsa cleared her throat and Anna looked back toward her. “I think I understand,” she said, “but can you get back to the point where you said you could clarify what the internet was telling me about having multiple things to do?”

“Oh, yeah!” Anna grinned. “I sorta did this before sometimes, but I used to worry that I wasn’t focusing right because you’re supposed to just focus on homework or school or whatever. Now I’m doing it more because there’s proof that it helps control the bouncing.”

“Mental bouncing?” Elsa clarified.

“Yeah yeah.” Anna realized she’d been bouncing in her chair and tried to settle it down a bit. “I need something to have running in the back of my head, or else the mental bouncing is random.” She held up her math book. “Math? There’s a word problem with apples. Apples are red. Oh I like watermelons because the insides are red. Watermelons start with ‘w’ and we had waffles for breakfast. I like breakfast but I’m not good at flipping pancakes.” She took a breath and refocused on Elsa. “That kinda stuff happens, but if I have something else to think of, something specific, then I can control the bouncing back and forth to just that.” She opened her math book. “Like math, then a doodle in class, then math.”

Elsa nodded. “That... that makes much more sense than the internet. Also: I’ve told you to stop doodling and stuff before while you were doing your homework, and I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was helping you and I won’t do it again.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Anna blinked. “Oh well thanks. You didn’t know better. I used to be kinda hard on myself too.”

“I’ll try to encourage your—”

“OH and it has to be a physical thing too!” Anna added. Elsa frowned at her. “Sorry,” she continued. “I forgot to say it earlier and didn’t want to forget. The bouncing. It can’t just be something else I think of. It has to be a doodle, or something I can physically touch or do.”

“Hm... I think I have an idea we can do together to help.” Elsa’s eyes wandered around Anna’s room.

“Oh?” Anna looked around her room too, wondering what Elsa was looking for.

“Ah-ha!” Elsa got up and went over to Anna’s open closet door. She came back carrying an old chess set they’d played with endlessly when they were younger. “Do you think you can carry on a game while doing your math homework?”

Anna’s leg was bouncing faster. The thought, the challenge, sounded exciting. “Let’s give it a try!”

It took them a couple minutes to relocate to the basement (for a better table) and get set up. Elsa had some reading to do, Anna had a few pages of math homework and a few worksheets for English.

Over their first game, Anna worked on striking the right balancing of bouncing. Chess was a bit more complicated than just doodling, but, at the same time, it left zero room between each move for her mind to wander away from her math homework. Elsa took the first game, but Anna won the next two. They were in the thick of their fourth game’s midgame when Anna turned back to the board, ready to take her turn, only to find that Elsa had not yet moved.

Anna started bouncing her leg. “What’s the hold up, sis?”

Elsa huffed. Anna noticed that her sister’s copy of Beowulf was closed. She couldn’t remember Elsa setting it down, but Anna was pretty sure Elsa hadn’t finished her assigned amount of reading.

Instead of reading, Elsa had her chin propped on her hands as she stared at the board intently. Her eyes flickered from one end of the board to the other.

Clearing her throat, Anna asked, “Uh, you gonna go?”

“Yeah?” Elsa scowled. “I just... I can’t decide and I seriously have no idea how you keep going back and forth so easily. I’m having trouble concentrating on my reading.”

Anna pointed at the book. “You’re not doing your reading at all, actually.”

“That... that might be part of the reason.” Elsa rubbed the back of her head. “Are you almost done with your homework? I think I might need a break.”

“Mmmhmm.” Anna glanced out the window. It was darker and later than she’d thought. “How about... we finish this game. I should be able to complete my homework by then. Then you can get back to your weird doing-one-thing-at-a-time thing.”

“Deal.” Elsa smirked. “But don’t think you’re about to win another game.”

Anna went back to her homework. “I don’t think,” she said, “I know.”

  
  


*

  
  
  


_Tap-tap-ta-tap—_

Anna opened the door partway through her knock. “Elsa! We have an emergency!”

She winced when her sister nearly fell out of her desk chair as she whipped around to stand up and rush over. Perhaps she’d been over-enthusiastic in her announcement.

“What’s the problem, Anna? What’s happening?!” Elsa looked around, as though checking Anna for injuries or the house for a fire or something.

Anna winced. Definitely over-enthusiastic. “Oh uh, not like... emergency-dying-emergency. I just, uh, school thing problem thing.”

Elsa’s shoulders descended slowly. “Oh,” she said, slumping to sit on her bed. “Okay.” After another moment, however, her gaze returned to Anna’s, alert and focused. “What’s the problem with school?”

“It’s Mr. Weselton.” Plopping into Elsa’s desk chair, Anna spun it around to face Elsa. “He wants us to use this really specific notetaking system with two columns and a row at the bottom and it’s really obnoxious, but most people have ignored it all year, myself included” She rolled her eyes. “But he’s insisting that ‘this is how it’s going to be in college’ so he’s started checking and grading our notes now before we leave class.”

Elsa winced. “Oh he’s gotten worse about that? I never minded taking notes with that system, but... you and I are very different people. How’d the grade go?”

“I can’t say for sure but he was writing down a number between one and ten in his gradebook.” Anna shrugged. “I think they’re just participation-esque points, but a two doesn’t sound very promising for me. It doesn’t make too much of a difference right now, but it’s gonna add up fast, and I can’t afford that. I’m still trying to pull my grades up from earlier in the semester.”

“That really sucks, Anna,” Elsa said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Anna grinned. “Actually, I have a plan. Are you down to sneak into the school after dark? I bribed a janitor to get a copy of the keys.”

She enjoyed the absolutely aghast expression on Elsa’s face for a long moment before sticking her tongue out. “I’m joking, silly. But I legit do have a plan, and I need someone very specific. Someone neurotypical who ‘gets’ the system, is sneaky, and is brilliant.”

Elsa’s expression twisted and she rolled her eyes. “Don’t scare me like that again,” she said. “But I seem to fit the bill for what you need for your second plan. What’s the deal?”

Anna couldn’t help bouncing her leg a bit. She’d been plotting all through after-school practice, trying a dozen different solutions before the perfect one struck her. “He only skims your notes,” she said. “At the end of class, he only has a minute or two to glance over everyone’s notes. If he keeps it up like he did today, he’ll just glance at the page and read a few words before he writes down a number and we walk out the door, home free.”

“Okay, I get it.” Elsa grinned. “We just need to find a way to get him to approve your notes.”

It took a moment of digging around her backpack, but Anna eventually pulled out her notebook from class. “I brought my notes,” she said. “So... yeah can you help me come up with a... a forgery system, I guess? Because my notes make sense to me. But they need to look like his stupid notes or I’ll get a bad grade.” When Elsa extended her hand, Anna passed the notebook to her. “I know they’re kinda messy, and I’m willing to do them a bit differently, but if I have to write vocab words on the left column or whatever, I’m going to scream.”

Elsa giggled as she skimmed over Anna’s notes. “If you scream when he’s glancing over your notes, he might be startled enough to give you a good score.”

“Maybe...” Anna watched her sister’s eyes dart over each page and wondered what sort of patterns Elsa saw there. Everything (and Anna truly believed that it was _everything)_ made sense to Elsa.

But Anna knew she understood some things better than Elsa did, like how she followed plots on shows better, and always made connections that let her guess the plot twists before they were ‘actually’ foreshadowed.

And she could spell and help out Kida with homework sometimes. Anna blinked. “Oh! Also: Kida mentioned that Weaseltown has apparently started being really strict about note format in her class with him too.” Elsa looked up and frowned, but Anna just grinned before continuing, “But since he just glances over, he doesn’t notice the misspellings. So at least she doesn’t have to change anything.”

“That’s great,” Elsa said, sitting up. “And I think I’ve deciphered your note system well enough to start transposing it. It’s not gonna be his system, by any means, but you should pass well enough.”

“That’s all I’m asking, sis.” Anna scooched the rolling chair over to where Elsa was. “So, what’s the secret code?”

Elsa’s grin was conspiratorial and contagious. Anna found herself smiling broadly back as Elsa began to whisper, as though they were children again, pulling off some elaborate heist to sneak cookies out of the jar. “Okay, Anna. You can’t think differently than you do, right?”

“Right.”

“And looking at your notes, you use indents a lot instead of bulletpoints or line breaks. Do you think you could use a drawing of some sort? Like a long rectangle? Instead of the indent? If you did that, I think the notes would look enough like a ‘regular’ paragraph that he won’t notice much. And it’ll still give you the same open space between points, so it’s not too crowded.” Elsa flipped through Anna’s notes and pointed out the places where the change might take place.

Anna nodded. “I think that could be possible. Definitely possible.”

“Perfect,” Elsa said. “Now, I don’t think you can get out of doing the columns—”

“Boo.”

Elsa rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah. Well, I’ve got an idea for how you can use them with your existing notes anyway.”

“Really?” Anna felt her leg start to bounce. “I’ve been puzzling over that one all day, trying to figure out what the heck to do with the stupid layout.”

“It’s a stupid layout,” Elsa agreed. “I hate taking notes that way.”

“But at least you can,” Anna pointed out.

“I can,” Elsa conceded. “And that’s why I can give you a hand here.”

“Just not literally.”

“I dunno, if you showed up with a spare hand in a jar, Mr. Weaseltown might be so shocked he’ll let you out of class and mark your notes high out of shock.”

“Elsa, ew.”

They went back and forth until Anna had almost forgotten why she was there in the first place. Elsa hadn’t, thankfully, and they eventually worked out a system that could sneak her by. And, as Anna left her sister’s room, she sighed. She wished that she didn’t have to work harder than everyone else to make it through, but she knew she would manage.

And, between her sister and her other friends, she certainly wouldn’t have to manage alone.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This commission was a joy to write, and I think that Anna with ADHD is a very compelling headcanon with a lot of weight behind it.
> 
> As far as Anna's specific experiences, I've based them, in part, off of someone close to me with ADHD. I, personally, do not have it. Everyone's experiences with ADHD will be different, and this fic should not be taken as any sort of definitive text on understanding, treating, or diagnosing ADHD.
> 
> If you have ADHD, I hope this fic provides some level of representation you can appreciate. If you do not have ADHD, I hope you've come away with some food for thought, but please do not assume you understand ADHD perfectly.
> 
> Regardless: I hope you enjoyed reading!


End file.
